Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 24, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 911 90859 Osprey 0 0 29 Bald Eagle 0 34 183 Northern Harrier 0 37 516 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 108 4052 Cooper's Hawk 0 10 75 American Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 112 281 Broad-winged Hawk 0 1 51922 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 990 2032 Rough-legged Hawk 0 4 7 Golden Eagle 0 37 72 American Kestrel 0 0 964 Merlin 0 5 55 Peregrine Falcon 0 4 49 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 3 Unknown Falcon 0 0 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 3 12 Total: 1 2256 151117 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jo Patterson Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Don Sherwood, Erika Van Kirk, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site as we are eager to share the joys of hawk watching with one and all. Although there may be times in which we are all very busy and need alone-time to concentrate, those are the times that are most enjoyable for visitors as the skies are filled with migrating raptors. Weather: Sir Winston Churchill once observed that “it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” The phrase might be modified to describe today and the coming days in the rest of the week. Today was a very bad day with only one bird observed, but the rest of the week might actually be worse. The day seemed benign in appearance, with early cirrus and gathering alto cirrus clouds becoming more opaque as the hours went by, until the early sun was completely hidden. The winds were off the lake from the south-southeast, strong enough at times to create small whitecaps, but easing in the final hours. We were sheltered for the most part and did not feel it’s effects. We did notice an eerie absence of, not only raptors, but the “others” were few and far between. Very few ducks and gulls were seen in our slip. The barometer was starting a downward slide that will end bottom out on Wednesday and this may have played a factor in the lack of birds. They may be skirting around the rain due tomorrow. The temperature reached forty-nine degrees, tolerable for late November. Perhaps the only weather parameter that has been relatively kind to us in the final month. Raptor Observations: Red-tails win! Red-tails win! However, much like baseball in which we declare a World Series winner, we forget to actually invite the rest of the world. There was no competition today as the single red-tail ran unopposed. Non-raptor Observations: It was a very quiet day on the “others” front. A couple of flights of sandhill cranes were seen, a pair one time, and a trio another. There were some large distant flights of ducks seen in the morning hours migrating at their usual rapid pace. Our small collection of hooded mergansers took off for parts unknown, as the general avian flight continued from our slip today. Tree sparrows were noted nearby, along with a downy woodpecker. Our local Coop gave us a fly over in the early part of the watch, pictures on FB tonight. Predictions: The barometer will continue to slide downward at a forty-five-degree angle tomorrow, never good. The rain should not reach that angle since milder winds are predicted. Cloud cover should be nearly complete all day. The barometer will rebound on Wednesday and Thursday nearly nine tenths of an inch, a significant difference which means significant winds, over twenty mph on Wednesday, continuing through Thanksgiving. Not good. Friday may be the last opportunity to see raptors, although the winds are not favorable. Saturday and Sunday may have us breaking out the snowblowers for the first time this fall, with over three inches of snow predicted at the time of this writing. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (ajyes72@gmail.com) Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org More site information at hawkcount.org: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285